The historical-swords-as-handsome-guys will make their first foray into reality on film!

Whoever first pitched the concept for Touken Ranbu must have had quite the amusing development meeting. After all, it’s a story about legendary Japanese swords. Oh, and also about hot guys defeating the forces of evil. Scratch that–it’s actually about legendary swords literally transforming into hot guys to defeat the forces of evil, which turned out to be quite the recipe for success.

Since bursting onto the scene in early 2015, the online game featuring anthropomorphic, historical katana has inspired everything from a newfound love for Japanese history in many of its players (especially younger women) to Christmas cakes bearing the characters’ visages. After two anime series, a stage play, and an upcoming musical set to debut later this month, we suppose it was only a matter of time before the game received the live-action treatment as well. That day has now come with the official announcement of Touken Ranbu: The Movie, set to hit Japanese theaters sometime in 2019.

Details at this point are sparse, but we do know that Yasuko Kobayashi, who has many TV anime and tokusatsu series under her belt, will handle screenplay. The film will be directed by Saiji Yakumo, who has most recently served as director for 2017’s Ankoku Joshi (“The Dark Maidens”) and 2016’s Mars~Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru~ (“I Just Love You”). Yakumo himself seemed a bit surprised by this turn of events as evidenced in this recent tweet:

“I never thought that Touken Ranbu would be turned into a live-action movie, let alone that I would serve as director.”

So far, eight members of the cast have been announced. Here they are in historical sword’s name: actor’s name format.

Mikazuki Munechika: 32-year-old Hiroki Suzuki [reprising his role from the stage play]

Yamanbagiri Kunihiro: 28-year-old Yoshihiko Aramaki [reprising his role from the stage play]

Yagen Toshiro: 27-year-old Ryo Kitamura

Heshikiri Hasebe: 26-year-old Masanari Wada [reprising his role from the stage play]

https://twitter.com/masanari6/status/968838105548521473

Nihongo: 38-year-old Hiroaki Iwanaga

Honebami Toshiro: 22-year-old Fuma Sadamoto

Fudo Yukimitsu: 31-year-old Taizo Shiina

Uguisumaru: 31-year-old Tomoki Hirose

https://twitter.com/sukusukunail/status/972837738574626816

If you’re curious about what these actors might look like in the live-action film version, the teaser from the December 2017 official stage play might give some hints as to stylistic cues:

Stay tuned to the official Touken Ranbu: The Movie website or the official Twitter account for more details as they’re released.

Source: Japaaan Magazine
Top image: Touken Ranbu Official Site
Featured image: Twitter/@stage_touken (edited by SoraNews24)